Electric ignition apparatus



' L.; W, ROSENTHA L 'AND G.'J.. LAN G,

-' ELECTRIC mmn'om APPARATUS.

v v APPLXCATION FILED OCT. 1 1918, 1,431,2 1..

"Patented Oct. 10, 1922.

m i 0 $3 V Fatented Oct. 10, 1 922. 1

UNITED STATES 1,431,261 PATENT" OFFICE.

LEON W. ROSENTHAI}, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AND GUSTAVE J. LANG, FWEEHAWKEN,'

NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORS, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 AMERICAN BOSCH MAG- NETOCORPORATION, OF YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF YORK.

' ELECTRIC IGNITION APPARATUS.

Application filed'October 1, 1918, Serial No. 256,460.

To all whom it may concern; y

. Be it known that we, LEON IV. ROSENTHAL, a citizen of the United.States, residing at 106 Central Park west, in the city, county,and'State of New York, and GUSTAVE' J.

LANG, a citizen of the United States, re-

siding at 849 Boulevard east, Weehawken,.

in the county of Hudson and State of New tus for this purpose comprisinga single Jersey, have inventedcertain new and vuseful Improvements inElectric Ignition Apparatus; and we do hereby'declare the followingv tobe a full, clear, and exact description of-the invention, such as willenable others skilled in'the art to whichit appertains' to make and usethe same.

@Ihe present invention relates to electrlc ignition apparatus forsimultaneously produoing sparks at two or more spark plugs in a cylinderof an internal combustion-en gine, or in a plurality of cylinders-inturn,

from two or more magnetos and more particularly it comprehends the useof apparamechanical interrupter forisimultaneously altering the circuitsof two or more magnetos, and suitable means for conducting to therespective spark plugs the ignition currents generated therein. y

In internalcombustion engines having comparatively large cylinders, it;is now usual to provide more than one sparkplug in each of thecylinders, in order that the flame propagation beaccelerated throughoutthe combustible mixtures and the combustion. made more complete therebyin each working stroke. Heretotore, this was sometimes accomplished byconnecting two spark.

plugs in a cylinder in electrical series and producing the sparks atboth from a single source, but where a single magneto was usedfor thispurpose, .difiiculty arose on account ofthe increased voltage generatedin the magneto. In another prior arrangement, two independent magnetoswere used, but in that case, a slight variation in the timing or in thewear or'setting of the driving gears, or of the operating parts of theinterrupter, caused the sparks to occur successively instead ofsimultaneously, with the result that the second spark is useless,

or practically so, especially when the engine operates at high speed orhas many cylinders In accordance with our invention, these is, in phasewith each'other. In this way, i

the circuits of all the magnetos are altered, that isopened, closed orgrounded, at the same instant, and thus sparks are produced at the sameinstant at all of the spark plugs in each cylinder, irrespective of thetiming ad ustment of the interrupter, and of any usual variationdue tosetting or wear of the driving gearing. In any of these an rangements,the distributors for a multicylinder engine may be incorporated .withthe respective magnetos or they may be mounted on a common shaft or onindependent shafts driven at'cam shaft speed for t cycle engines. Themechanical-interrupter may be mounted on a separateshaft driven by theengine at the same or a different speed from that of the magnetos,

neto shafts, the circuits of the magnetos being altered by themechanical interrupter at substantially the periods of their maximumgeneration.

or directly on one or the other of the mag- In the accompanying drawingsillustrat- I ing several embodiments of our invention in application, asan example, to a 12-cylinder t-cycle engine having two spark plugs ineach cylinder, wherein the mechanical. interrupter is mounted on anoperating shaft to which,two high tension magnetos are independentlygeared, and rotates at the same speed as the magnetos, and wherein thetwo distributors are mounted on the cam shafts of the engine, Flg. 1 1sa front elevatlon of the engine showing the lgnltlOn view of themechanical interrupter of Fig. 1 having a single pair of interrupterelements; Fig. 3 is a front view of a modified form of mechanicalinterrupter having two pairs of interrupter elements; and Fig. i

apparatus installed thereon; Fig. 2 is a front producing four speed thesame effect as rain terrupter of l r1 1 A I Reterring t I a i, theengine 1 ms cylindois 2 arrangedin f l s 3 driv ng an operating Sllfl-ibincreasing bevel chanical interrupter 6 is crating shaft and t d on theon meinagnetos 7, each 'flltlOXl currents per rotae speed he operatingtion, are driven a shaft through distributors 9 are cam shafts of the tosimultaneous nition current spective spark turn. As shown in rran god tore- E2, the mechanics interrupter of l i as single cain ins ober ll,with four cairn portions 12, Li'lfl operating shaft '1. There is asingle pair of in terrupter elements, comprising the deflectable element13 cooperative with the cam member to be separatedthereby from thenormally stationary interrupter element l lat four equally spacedintervals per rotation of the operating shaft corresponding the fourangular positions of maximum generation of the magnetos 7, As shown inFigs. 1 and 4:, the insulated terminals or the primary windings 15 ofthe two niagnetos are connected in electrical parallel by thewvires 16to the interrupter element 14, Whereas the secondary windings 17' areconnected by the wires 18 to the respective rotatable brushes 19 of thedistributors 9.

At each period of ignition, the interrupter element 13 is separated fromthe element 1% by the cam member 11, thereby removing the common groundconnection 20 from the circuits of both of the primary windings 15.Thus, since the two magnetos 7 are synchronized, the alteration of thecircuits of the p'rimaiy vvindin thereof has substantially it thosecircuits were in dividually interrupted. Accordingly, igni tion voltagesare simultaneously produced in the secondary windings 1'? of the twomagnetos at each period oi ignition, and the secondary currentsresulting therefrom conducted. through the respective distributors toindependent spark plugs of each cylinder in turn.

In 3, two pairs of. interrupter elements are substituted "for the singlepair of Fig. 2, but the two detlecta-ble elements 21 are simultaneouslyseparated from. the nor mally-stationary elements 22 by the same cammember 11. Although this arrange ment permits independent connection ofthe two primary windings of the roa netos 7, and actually ii terruptsthose circuits each period of igni on, it may have the disadva-n tageover the single pair of ele ments that in the fibre b-loclrs23 should Th e spark plugs and also having an operati o to different. e"tents, thesparks at the we spark plugs of each cylinder would not occur at exactlythe same instant although they would occur substant ally simultano mgthe housing around the operating a. The sparks from the two magnetosoccur simultaneously tor Iauy adjusteven it the rotating members of the.1 to ma; News 7 would be. set or shouldbecome by Wear slightlydisplaced from milac angular positions at each or all of the in} onperiods, vving described our invention what claim is z" 1.Tlhe-combination with an internal conu bustion engine having a cylinderwith two shaft dri' en by it, of electric ignition up :atus producingsparks the spark plugs simultaneously, comprising two magnetos driven insynchronism with each other by the operating shalt, a. single mechanicalinterrupter driven by the operating;- shaft and constructed and arrangedto simultaneously' alter the circuits of the two magnetos and produce inition currents therein, and means for con acting the ignition currentsto the respective spark plugs.

The combination with an internal coinbustion engine having a cylinderwith two spark plugs and also having an operating shaft driven by it, ofelectric ignition apparatus for producing sparks the sparkplugssimultaneously, comprising two mag netos geared to the operatingshaft to run synchronously With each other, a single echanicalinterrupter driven by the operating shafts-rid constructed and arrangedto simultaneously alter the circuits of the two spark plugs and alsohaving an operating 4 shaft driven by it, of electrical lgnltlOllapparatus for producing sparks at the two spark plugs simultaneously,'-connprisinp two -magnet os geared to the operating shai't to runsynchronously with each other, a single mechanical interrupter driven bythe operating shaft and constructed and arranged to simultaneously alterthe circuits of the two magnetos and produce ignition-currcnts therein,and means for conducting the tion-currents to the respective sparkplugs, the two inagnetos being connected to the mechanical. interrupterin electrical parallel.

The combination with an internal cc busticn engine having e cylinderwith t produce ignition currents spark plugs and also having anoperating shaft driven by it, of electric ignition apparatus forproducing sparks at the spark plugs simultaneously, comprising twomagnetos independently geared to the operating shaft run synchronouslywith each other, a single mechanical interrupter mounted on theoperating shaft and constructed and arranged to simultaneously alter thecircuits of the two magnetos and produce ignition currents therein, andmeans for conducting the i nition currents to the respective spark P g5. The combination with an internal combustion engine having a pluralityof cylinders each with two spark plugs and also having a cam shaft andan operating shaft driven by the engine, of electric ignition apparatusfor producing sparks at the twospark plugs of each cylinder,simultaneously, comprisin two magnetos geared to the operating sha t torun synchronously With each other, a, single mechanical interrupterdriven by the operating shaft and constructed and arranged tosimultaneously alter the circuits of the two magnetos and produceignition currents therein, and two independent distributors mounted onthe cam shaft to con duct the ignition currents to the respective sparkplugs of each cylinder in turn.

6. The combination with an internal combustion engine having a pluralityof cylinders each "with two spark plugs, and also having a cam shaft andan operating shaft driven by the engine, of electric ignition apparatusfor producing sparks at the spark plugs of each cylinder simultaneously,comprising two magnetos independently geared to the operating shaft torun synchronously with'each other, a single mechanical interrupterdriven by the operating shaft at the speed of the magnetos andconstructed and arranged to simultaneously alter the circuits of the twomagnetos and produce ignition currents therein, and two independentdistributors mounted on the cam shaft to conduct the ignition currentsto the respective spark plugs of-each cylinder in turn.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures.

LEON W. ROSENTHAL. GUSTAVE J. LANG.

